Conflict by Force
by Cat o'thWind
Summary: Its just a quiet evening when someone captures Aang, Katara and Sokka, their intentions unclear. With the group trapped in an unusual prision, they find their only contact with each other, and the other catives, is not what could be hoped for. Read and Re
1. Dusky Capture

The air smells heavily of evening and dense forest.

Once, before this ordeal, before Aang and worry of the entire world's fate, before she had traveled farther than the strong strokes of her hand could carry her kayak and herself, Katara had not known the smell of forest. 'Forest' had meant the sparse scrubby pine trees that grew twisted and stubborn on southern island, kept away from crushing ice by shear cliffs.

In the South Pole, the vastness of the land was taken up by sweeping tundra, rolling onward and endless to meet the sky. In summer it was wrapped in a burst of life, covered in flowers while sea living birds hid speckled eggs among the blooms. But the rest of the year let the sky and the earth melt together in similarity, white shaded snow meeting billowing white grey clouds forming a flat blanket in the sky. This was what she knew, of being able to looking into a void, and finding a sense of physical reality only when one knelt over and brushed away soft snow from lichen coated stone and earth.

Here however, it is all green. Instead of looking out and seeing the horizon, one only has the sense of endlessness that goes on past the trees, told only by the silence. For the first few days, it had un-nerved her, and Sokka had shown he was clearly claustrophobic, though his scowls denied anything. Even now though, Katara's older brother was perfectly oblivious to the oddness of the forest, while Katara herself retained some wariness of it, especially when she woke in the predawn and blearily realised that she could not honestly say what stood twenty feet away from her.

She was deep enough in thought that as a large moth fluttered about her head, she simply brushed it away with gentle fingers. Sokka ducked sideways, his feet kept in the balance his fighters training had taught, and fixed his eyes on where he knew their nightly camp and their fire lay ahead. It was too late for anything was immediate and imminent threat to interest him.

Aang on the other hand was ever curious, and tilted his head. Cupped hands, the backs of which were accented by their distinct indigo design, caught the moth. He clenched his teeth and grinned as flight wings fluttered against bare skin. Then, realizing that withholding noise will not catch the attention of his friends, he allowed a bit of his mirth to escape. This was rewards by two pairs of eyes turning towards him, identical in their deep cobalt color, but not in their expression.

Katara managed a faint smile, which she promptly dropped of exhaustion, though her eyes remained on Aang's intertwined fingers, glimpsing the movement within.

Sokka turned away, not with cruelty, but with exhaustion and hunger and spoke over his shoulder.

"Come on, its just a bug. We've got good food by the fire." Katara nodded in agreement.

"It has been kind of a busy day. Let's just bring all this back." She said, indicating the weighted skin of water and a bundle of firewood in her arms. "Then we can get some rest. Momo must be bored."

Aang nodded accepting the excuse. He doubted the inquisitive winged creature had waited for his human companions to arrive to go find something interesting to do, but the air bender knew he wasn't getting anything out of two people so tired. For a moment, he was irritated that they could be so worn-out, until the feeling was buried by the fact that most of his evening had been spent pulling down dry branches from tree tops, while the others had dragged the thick branches off to camp.

Sighing resignation, he released the frazzled moth, giving it a gentle breeze to easy it into the canopy, before walking down the trail again, spinning his staff absent-mindedly.

At the abrupt movement ahead and Katara's angry cry, he tensed visibly. Then his legs crumpled at a sharp pain along his neck and the sensation of his breath being knocked out of his body. He lay, hearing vague voices, and thought he was coming to, until a sudden jerk sent him inelegantly into a place with not thoughts or sensations.

That was the last time any of them was conscious for quite some time.


	2. Katara Awakens

The first thing Katara noticed, as that her mouth tasted bitter and gritty. Moaning, she rolled over, sensing through a haze that dulled her thoughts, that she was laying on a rough stone floor.

She _ached_. From head to toes, but mostly it is along her neck and legs. After a few minutes of scattered pondering in which she kept still as stone, eyes closed and breathing as if asleep, the water bender realized that she had probably been drugged and it was likely she had not moved in hours. This explained the ache.

There was no way to judge how long she been there, but eventually, she decided that she really should move. Her weight shifted imperceptibly, and suddenly, she pulled herself into a sitting position. Arms reached out instinctively to hold her up, but one crumples, numb and with not use to it, a dead weight. The rest of her body is left unsupported at she pitches forward, settling into an awkward crouch. She had clearly been on the ground for hours, shuttering off circulation to that arm. It made her groan at the thought of moving.

At that point, sea blue eyes flick open. They closed almost instantly, as the shock of light disorients her, along with the remains of the drug. Her lips pursed, irritable and worried, bracing herself for the worst. Slowly, both lids lifted, and her holdings are revealed.

Stone. Everything in the room seemed to be made of stone. Her eyes are turned towards the floor (it is at this point that she realized that she is flat on her face on the ground), which was worn granite with a musty smell that suggests she may be looking at the bare bedrock.

Raising her eyes though, she realized that the walls were more recent additions. Solid marble blocks, low quality in appearance and left rough, but clearly a tough barrier between her and escape. Without noticing, she was worrying away at her lip, gnawing on it and turning experimentally to see the rest of the room.

One door inlaid in the stone. It didn't even look a door, there was no crack around the edges, just a tight fir. No doorknob, no keyhole. The only way she saw it was the fact that it was a contrast to the muddy brown marble, painted with dark speckles against pale grey. For two sickening seconds, she discounted the bright sunlight and thought herself in a tome.

With a swirling movement and a relieved sigh, the girl spotted a small window with an unusual grid of pure stone, obviously earth bender make. Yet, with one fear past, another rose, the fear any girl whom has been drugged must eventually confront.

Cringing against what she may have found, she took a good look at herself. After a moment of critical thought, she decided she was fine. Her clothes were her own, and untorn, if terribly dirty, clear azure masked by dull earth. What once would have been disgusting, was then a relief.

It took a while, hours she guessed, for her senses to clear fully. Her hearing came under her control, and she heard the click of feet outside, muffled by the stone. Out the window, bird called raucously, oblivious to all but each other. In the end, she stood, brushing off her knees automatically, and walked stiffly to the window.

Katara had to crane her neck to see outside, and what she saw was not terribly useful. A forest seemed to trickle right to the edge of her prison. Only her fingers fit through the densely woven stone, and she wiggled them in the fresh breeze. It just seemed a rather cheerful place to imprison someone, but that didn't keep the water bender from tensing at each passing trail of footsteps.

Escape looked difficult, but at the very thought, her fingers traced the edge of her skin of water, the ridges edges familiar to her finger tips.

Her water.

They had left her skin of water? Well, it was just water, but her clothes blatantly advertised that she was of the water nation. A smile quirked her lips. They had left her with a weapon.\

Yay for my (two) reveiwers! Love to you.


	3. Prision Greeting

Sokka had been pacing for some time now. The soles of his boots scuffed against the thick rock floor, while he kept a steady speed, shoulders taut and jaw clenched. It took him five steps to walk at width of the room, at which point the turned on his heel and repeated the process. Occasionally he swore venomously, for Aang (who was 'innocent') and Katara (who would hit him), were not there. Not that this was a good thing.

Already he had levelled the sharpened edge of his boomerang against every surface, using the half dulled corner, and pressing firmly. None of the rock showed even a scratch, though the walls discoloured if he ground the metal against it. Even his thinnest knife barely fit through the crack between the door and wall, and when he ran it along the edges, all he found was a single obstruction, which he could not budge.

It was at once a reassurance and a bother that they had left him his weapons. The fighter knew that they had been found. When he had come to, his first sight had been the glare off his cobalt steel boomerang and sharp tooth edged knife. The pair of weapons had lain side by side, neatly placed in the center of the room.

It just seemed rather odd.

Something to his right cracked suddenly. Facing the door, he held an aggressive stance, favouring the boomerang as his weapon of choice. Holding back the impulse to leap forward immediately, he waited until the door had slid open. Something peeked through the opening, and Sokka slammed forward, catching the object with a sharp blow, and shoving his foot in the crack. For some reason, he could not open it further, and prepared to confront the enemy.

Ice blue eyes widened in confusion as he saw, not a fire nation warrior, but a fit earth bender, casually allowing a smooth river rock to drift about an outstretched hand, while the other palm pressed lightly against the door, holding it immoveable. The river rock bore marks of attack; clearly he had hit the stone and not the man.

"Get the hell out of my way." Sokka snarled, leaned at an odd angle to peek through the small sliver of an opening. For a moment, a smirk and a slight movement to the door made Sokka lash out, but found the man out of his reach, as only his arm fit through the crack.

"I don't really think I will. You'll want to get your arm out of there now, I'm closing this." He said smoothly, patting the door. Sokka glowered, but backed away and watched the door slam shut. An odd grinding noise made him wonder with the door was held by a brace. It didn't matter anyways. It swung inward, and he had no way of pulling the stone, only pushing.

Slumping in a corner, he wondered where he was.

…

Although neither knew it, a few hundred feet away, Katara was having a similar experience.

She had slipped into a light doze, awkward on the hard stone. A rattle, of metal on stone had awoken the girl. The clatter brought her to her feet, springing into a tense position, instantly alert. A metal rod had been shoved through the half open door and shaken, producing the irritating sound.

The door was open fairly wide, and Katara spotted dark hair and a maroon and black vest. Fire nation. Sliding against the door, out of view, she waited until curiosity got the better of the stout man. The metal stick slid away, and was replaced by the confused face of the man. In a moment, her hands had flown forward, as if leading some invisible force. Instead, a gush of water followed, wrapping around her captor's head and yanking.

"Augh!" He cried, over balancing. The water bender dashed forward, slamming open the door, mobile water flowing up and down her arms. In moments, she was out the door and into a hallway. But the man would not let her pass, and slammed his whole weight into her, toppling Katara back into her room and slamming the door.

Grinding her teeth, she moved experimentally, and found herself unbroken. A slow movement brought all the water back into her container, and she spent the rest half of an hour gentling teasing more liquid from the battled under the crack of the door, knowing it was her best bet at escape.

Thanks for the reveiws peoples. If you're reading this, click that button in the lower left hand corner. Really.


	4. Suggested Threat

I apologize to the scattered tenses (jumping from past to present) all through this story. It may be just me, but I'm really killing myself over it. If it is a bother, sorry. Hope you enjoy this new, slightly delayed, instalment.

…

His awakening was abrupt, and orchestrated by a dull grating sound, metal against metal. Eyes flicked open, and hands instantly, instinctually, were pulled towards his ears, trying to block out the noise.

Something however, resisted.

Aang breathed in sharply, and became still. The noise had ceased. He could feel hard metal at his back, and the same feeling wrapped about his wrists. The fact that his main view was of an iron ceiling told his he was on his back. A twitch to his legs told him them too were restrained. However, when he leaned forward, there was nothing to stop him, and so he sat up awkwardly, eyes locking on the most dominating thing before him.

"Hello." Said the man, with a smirk. There was something about the malicious pleasure in his pale brown eyes that made Aang know, simply know, that the man knew he was the Avatar. The 12 year old refused to lay back down, though his arms hurt from the bindings. He would face this threat.

"You are a very fine catch." He said, his tone silky, trying to sound slightly bored, yet the eagerness still shown through. He left a great pause to hang in the air before speaking again. "Tell me, what elements can you bend." This time his voice was harsh. He expected a response, and Aang put on a fearful face to please him.

"Air. I'm an air bender…" He lied, allowing the honest shock of being captured to slip into his voice, and lowering his eyes.

"Well, you lot have been dead for a century. That would make you the Avatar."

It was not a question, and Aang nodded silently. He wished for the man to look away. He needed to see the exits, try and look at his restraints, try to find an escape.

"Where are my fr-?" Aang started, but was interrupted by the angry voice of the man.

"You do not ask questions! Remember that!" He roared, his eyes narrow, his mouth and angry line. Aang felt angry starting to boil up in his throat, but he looked away and stayed quiet.

A time passed, and the man did not leave. The air bender could not tell his elemental alliance. He wore dull yellow and brown clothes that looked halfway to being armor. His face had the color and build of an earth nation person, and so he assumed that. It didn't matter. He was an enemy, so matter what else he was.

Suddenly, the grating noise began again, and this time, Aang was aware enough to know it was behind him. Turn around hurt, but he finally saw that it was a door. Like the rest of the room, the door was metal. Two men entered, younger than the first. They bowed slightly, and muttered, as a way of greeting: "Master Kyros…"

"How are the newcomers?" Kyros demanded. One of the men stepped forward, a lithe green clad youth of the earth nation. He loosely held a smooth stone in his right hand.

"The boy does not appear to have any bending talent. However, he used the weapons discovered with him, and he was very aggressive. I think he'll do the well in the Ring."

"The girl too," Said the stout fire nation man, "is aggressive. She however, is a water bender. She's a sly little bitch, almost got into the corridor, but I put that right."

Aang tensed. He didn't like the sound of this, not at all. Kyros nods, looking pleased.

"Thank you. I want details of there response before dinner. Tomorrow, we will prepare the boy for a fight and test the girl, along with this one" Kyros orders, motioning to Aang at his last words.

At this, the leader rose, and his subordinates following him out the room, leaving Aang trapped to consider his fate, his friend's fate, and any possible escape.

…

Kimchi: Well, to avoid confusion, yep, they're all in the same place, as I hope this chapter revealed. Also, Katara encountered a Fire Nation man with no bending talent. He just shoved her back into the room, nothing more. I'm kind of bad at writing action…

Also, if you're reading this, just write a review that tell me you exist. That would make me happy .


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